Incumbent, challenger announce District 97 bids

Suzie Bell, a Democrat from Eureka Springs, has announced her intention to run for the House District 97 seat in 2020.

The seat is now held by Rep. Harlan Breaux, R-Holiday Island. Breaux announced Monday that he intends to run for re-election.

Bell, 68, is a retired speech-language pathologist who served a few years on the Eureka Springs City Council.

Breaux, 72, is a retired aluminum plant clerk and insurance salesman who served in the Vietnam War.

House District 97 includes parts of Carroll, Madison and Washington counties.

Bell said Breaux “didn’t do a whole lot” beyond co-sponsoring some bills in this year’s regular legislative session.

“I intend to work, and I am a hard worker,” Bell said.

But Breaux said he successfully pushed for legislation to allow Holiday Island residents to vote on whether to incorporate the community as a municipality.

Bell said she opposes the work requirement on many of the participants in the state’s Medicaid expansion program called Arkansas Works. She said she’s appalled at the number of Arkansans who have lost their health care coverage as a result of failing to follow the state’s rules on the work requirement. The program provides private health insurance to about 240,000 low-income people.

“I think we can do better than this,” she said. She said she is willing to work on a compromise that is a reasonable idea.

A federal judge’s rulings in March struck down Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky, and the rulings have been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Arkansas’ requirement, which went into effect in June 2018, resulted in 18,164 enrollees losing their coverage for noncompliance. The March 27 rulings by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg prevented as many as 5,492 more enrollees from losing coverage in April and stopped Kentucky’s requirement from going into effect.

Breaux said he supports the work requirement in the Medicaid expansion program.

“I am not just for handouts,” he said. He said he also backs the Arkansas Works program.

Bell said she wants to work on providing more affordable housing in the state.

Breaux said he wants to work to make it easier for people to adopt children.

“I understand that in order for Arkansas’ economy to consistently thrive, we must create an atmosphere that attracts business while stimulating job growth and encouraging small business owners,” he said in a written statement. “With the help of voters in District 97, I plan to continue to advocate for commonsense conservative solutions Arkansans care most about.”